FACING THE MUSIC: CECILIA BARTOLI FROM BARENBOIM, BELLINI AND BERNSTEIN TO FLAMENCO DANCING AND YODELLING - THE MEZZO SHARES HER MUSICAL PASSIONS

What was the first record you bought?

An album of Rita Pavone.

What was the last piece of music (written or recorded) you bought? 

A facsimile of Bellini’s manuscript of Norma.

Vinyl or digital?

Live!

What’s your musical guilty pleasure?

There is no guilty pleasure in the world of music. I feel guilty when I am not making music.

If you had time learn a new instrument, what would it be?

Probably a string instrument such as the violin: their sound is the closest to the human voice.

If you had to pick one work to introduce someone to the wonders of classical music, what would it be?

An opera comica of Rossini – for example La Cenerentola.

Did you ever consider a career outside of music?

I used to want to become a flamenco dancer.

What’s been your most memorable live music experience as an audience member?

There are many, for example just last week, Daniel Barenboim performing Mozart Piano Concerto in A, KV488.

We’re giving you a time machine: what period, or moment in musical history, would you travel to and why?

I would like to ask Mozart, Rossini or Bellini what they think about today’s performances of their music with modern instruments with this huge and brilliant sound.

What is the best new piece written in the past 50 years?

I could never say this or that piece is “the best” – but last year, at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival, I was part of a new production of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story which is an absolute masterpiece, even if it is nearly 60 years old!

What was the last piece of music you danced to?

The mambo of West Side Story. It was played by the Simon Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

Which non-classical musician would you like to work with?

When I prepared my album Maria I studied the technique of yodelling with a Swiss folk singer; and then, of course, I adored collaborating with a group of flamenco players.

Imagine you’re a festival director with unlimited resources. What would you programme – or commission – for your opening event?

I am extremely lucky: I am already a festival director – at the Salzburg Whitsun festival, and I have the privilege of programming each year’s opening event, although of course there are not unlimited resources!

Cecilia Bartoli performs Handel Heroines at the Barbican, London on 25 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/21/facing-the-music-mezzo-soprano-cecilia-bartoli